#Marie Madeleine Coskaer de la Vieuville Parabere

[love-for-carnation]

Marie Madeleine Coskaer de la Vieuville Parabere, 1711 Jacint Rigau-Ros i Serra known as Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659-1743, Catalan-French)

Marie Madeleine de La Vieuville, Marquise of Parabère (1693-1755), was a French aristocrat. She was the official mistress of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, during his tenure as regent of France during the minority of the infant King Louis XV of France. In 1711, she married Caesar Alexandre de Baudéan, Marquis of Parabère (d. 1716). The marriage was not happy, but resulted in three children. Her husband had no position at court, but she was able to attend the royal court because of her mother, who was a lady-in-waiting. In 1716, she became the official mistress of the regent, succeeding Madame de Sabran as the regent's main favorite. She presided in his famous private parties and pleasure life. While she was the regent's principal mistress, he had numerous temporary lovers, as did she. She shared her place as his lover with multiple partners, notably Madame de Phalaris, but she was always his main favorite to whom he returned to in the end and reportedly felt love and respect. Among her own additional lovers were Thomas Goyon de Matignon, Jacques-Louis de Beringhen and Armand de Vignerot du Plessis. Many scandalous stories were told about her, as they were about the regent, and she was a central figure in the scandal press of the time. She was described as bold and beautiful, with great will power and a taste for the pleasures of life, and the Regent reportedly loved her because he found her to be an equal partner, which whom he could indulge in pleasure and forget his work. She had no influence in state affairs, simply because she had no interest in them and lacked political ambition. The regent's mother once remarked that her son appreciated her because she distracted him from political affairs and helped him indulge in pleasure instead, something they both preferred to politics. In January 1721 she herself ended the relationship with the regent, after an argument when she discovered him being unfaithful with two girls from the Opera. The regent, who did not wish to loose her, continued to visit her and tried to persuade her to return, and a couple of months later she retired to a convent, claiming that she wished to make amends for past sins. However, she did not become a nun but simply lived in the convent as a guest, which was common in this era.